Rules for Poem Selection:
--Must be a written, published poem (no songs, although poems published by songwriters are potentially acceptable).
--"Mature" language is acceptable, but in general, the poem should not be explicit in content or language. There's nothing wrong with controversial topics (they tend to be interesting), but see me if you have any questions about whether your chosen poem is acceptable.
Rules for Project Completion:
--View some of the videos included in the link above to see examples of what I'm looking for, but make sure your video includes the following:
----Begin by reading the name of the poet and the poem and then talking about why you chose the poem and why you like it. Do you feel a connection to some elements of the author's background? Are there particular lines that you connect with or that you like for any particular reason? Does the poem have special meaning to you or do you just like the way it sounds? What makes this poem The Poem for you?
----Then you read the poem. If it's extremely long, just read a chosen excerpt of 10 lines or more. Before you read the poem, read the poet and the poem title once again.
What Software/Media can I Use?:
--Anything that allows you to record your voice and show some images. For example:
----iMovie: You would have to record video/audio with a camcorder or just audio in GarageBand, and then import the file into iMovie, where you could add images and text slides along with the audio track.
----Podcast: You could record your voice in GarageBand and create a Podcast by adding appropriate images.
----Powerpoint/Keynote: You could record your voice in GarageBand and then include the audio file(s) in a Powerpoint or Keynote that includes images and text slides. You could even export this Powerpoint as a movie file if you wanted.
Plan for Completion: Day 1: Select a poem Day 2: Plan and record your poem audio Day 3: Import and organize your audio and video files Day 4: Finalize and submit
--Note that this is a reallllly long poem, but you could take just a section of it to use for this project. This free verse poem was innovative for its time: Whitman celebrated the independent spirit of the individual in every way imaginable-- even the traditionally (at the time, at least) "ugly" ways.
Favorite Lines: "I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the / beginning and the end, / But I do not talk of the beginning or the end. / There was never any more inception than there is now, / Nor any more youth or age than there is now, / And will never be any more perfection than there is now, / Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now."
--Neruda is probably most famous for two things: writing poetry about love(rs), and writing odes (celebratory poems) about some of the most random things you can imagine. "Ode to My Socks" essentially combines both of those concepts. If you like this poem, look around for any of Pablo's other Odes (there are some great ones) from the book Elemental Odes or love poems from 100 Love Sonnets (he wrotes 100 love poems for his wife; and you thought you were a good boyfriend?). Also note that Neruda wrote originally in Spanish, so any English poems you read are translations.
Favorite Lines: "twice beautiful / is beauty / and what is good is doubly / good / when it is a case of two / woolen socks in wintertime."
--Komunyakaa is a poet who also fought in the Vietnam War, and his (many) poems about those experiences are very, very good, but "Blue Light Lounge Sutra..." is not about War; this poem is meant to be performed and to be *heard*. The music of the poem is clearly influenced by the beat and sounds of jazz, and I haven't heard many poems that capture the rhythm and soul of music quite as well as this one. Try reading it out loud and hearing the rhythm of the words-- by yourself, if you really need to avoid your friends making fun of you.
Favorite Lines: "the need gotta be / so deep words can't / answer simple questions / all night long notes / stumble off the tongue / and color the air indigo / so deep fragments of gut / and flesh cling to the song...you gotta get into it / blow that saxophone / so deep all the sex & dope in this world / can't erase your need / to howl against the sky"
--I love this poem because I know just how much it means in the context of the poet’s background. Yeats is one of Ireland’s most famous poets, and was also a prominent political figure for the country, so much of his life was dominated by politics and involvement in the government. To my knowledge, Yeats wrote this poem late in his career. If you consider how much of his life and time he gave to Ireland and to politics and how he was probably at the height of his poetic skill when he wrote this simple poem, and then you look at this poem as his way of summing up what he felt was important to him towards the end of his life, I think you get at the power behind these basic lines.
Favorite Lines: “And maybe what they say is true / Of war and war’s alarms, / But O that I were young again / And held her in my arms!”
--I love this poem because I found it while searching for poems I thought you might also come to love. I love this poem because, if you read it once a day, every morning you wake up, you might just appreciate that day a little more.
Favorite Lines: “I never knew I liked the night pitch-black / sparks fly from the engine / I didn’t know I loved sparks / I didn’t know I loved so many things and I had to wait until sixty / to find it out…”
Click here for the sample videos
Rules for Poem Selection:
--Must be a written, published poem (no songs, although poems published by songwriters are potentially acceptable).
--"Mature" language is acceptable, but in general, the poem should not be explicit in content or language. There's nothing wrong with controversial topics (they tend to be interesting), but see me if you have any questions about whether your chosen poem is acceptable.
Rules for Project Completion:
--View some of the videos included in the link above to see examples of what I'm looking for, but make sure your video includes the following:
----Begin by reading the name of the poet and the poem and then talking about why you chose the poem and why you like it. Do you feel a connection to some elements of the author's background? Are there particular lines that you connect with or that you like for any particular reason? Does the poem have special meaning to you or do you just like the way it sounds? What makes this poem The Poem for you?
----Then you read the poem. If it's extremely long, just read a chosen excerpt of 10 lines or more. Before you read the poem, read the poet and the poem title once again.
What Software/Media can I Use?:
--Anything that allows you to record your voice and show some images. For example:
----iMovie: You would have to record video/audio with a camcorder or just audio in GarageBand, and then import the file into iMovie, where you could add images and text slides along with the audio track.
----Podcast: You could record your voice in GarageBand and create a Podcast by adding appropriate images.
----Powerpoint/Keynote: You could record your voice in GarageBand and then include the audio file(s) in a Powerpoint or Keynote that includes images and text slides. You could even export this Powerpoint as a movie file if you wanted.
Plan for Completion:
Day 1: Select a poem
Day 2: Plan and record your poem audio
Day 3: Import and organize your audio and video files
Day 4: Finalize and submit
Links for finding Poems:
http://poets.org/http://poemhunter.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/
Here are samples of some of my favorite poems and poets that you might consider exploring:
Walt Whitman,"Song of Myself
--Note that this is a reallllly long poem, but you could take just a section of it to use for this project. This free verse poem was innovative for its time: Whitman celebrated the independent spirit of the individual in every way imaginable-- even the traditionally (at the time, at least) "ugly" ways.Favorite Lines: "I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the / beginning and the end, / But I do not talk of the beginning or the end. / There was never any more inception than there is now, / Nor any more youth or age than there is now, / And will never be any more perfection than there is now, / Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now."
Pablo Neruda, "Ode to My Socks"
--Neruda is probably most famous for two things: writing poetry about love(rs), and writing odes (celebratory poems) about some of the most random things you can imagine. "Ode to My Socks" essentially combines both of those concepts. If you like this poem, look around for any of Pablo's other Odes (there are some great ones) from the book Elemental Odes or love poems from 100 Love Sonnets (he wrotes 100 love poems for his wife; and you thought you were a good boyfriend?). Also note that Neruda wrote originally in Spanish, so any English poems you read are translations.Favorite Lines: "twice beautiful / is beauty / and what is good is doubly / good / when it is a case of two / woolen socks in wintertime."
Yusef Komunyakaa, "Blue Light Lounge Sutra..."
--Komunyakaa is a poet who also fought in the Vietnam War, and his (many) poems about those experiences are very, very good, but "Blue Light Lounge Sutra..." is not about War; this poem is meant to be performed and to be *heard*. The music of the poem is clearly influenced by the beat and sounds of jazz, and I haven't heard many poems that capture the rhythm and soul of music quite as well as this one. Try reading it out loud and hearing the rhythm of the words-- by yourself, if you really need to avoid your friends making fun of you.Favorite Lines: "the need gotta be / so deep words can't / answer simple questions / all night long notes / stumble off the tongue / and color the air indigo / so deep fragments of gut / and flesh cling to the song...you gotta get into it / blow that saxophone / so deep all the sex & dope in this world / can't erase your need / to howl against the sky"
William Butler Yeats, “Politics”
--I love this poem because I know just how much it means in the context of the poet’s background. Yeats is one of Ireland’s most famous poets, and was also a prominent political figure for the country, so much of his life was dominated by politics and involvement in the government. To my knowledge, Yeats wrote this poem late in his career. If you consider how much of his life and time he gave to Ireland and to politics and how he was probably at the height of his poetic skill when he wrote this simple poem, and then you look at this poem as his way of summing up what he felt was important to him towards the end of his life, I think you get at the power behind these basic lines.Favorite Lines: “And maybe what they say is true / Of war and war’s alarms, / But O that I were young again / And held her in my arms!”
Nazim Hikmet, “Things I Didn’t Know I Loved”
--I love this poem because I found it while searching for poems I thought you might also come to love. I love this poem because, if you read it once a day, every morning you wake up, you might just appreciate that day a little more.Favorite Lines: “I never knew I liked the night pitch-black / sparks fly from the engine / I didn’t know I loved sparks / I didn’t know I loved so many things and I had to wait until sixty / to find it out…”
Taylor Mali, "What Teachers Make"
Edward Hirsch, "Still Life"
Listen, it only takes a moment
to move, to knot ourselves
together like the ends of a rope
longing to be knotted together,
but let’s avoid it, let’s wait.
Ropes, even the sturdiest ropes,
pull, they strain, struggle, eventually
they break. But think of it;
in a still life a knife
pauses above a platter of
meat, it only takes a second, and
poof it becomes the idea of a knife,
the drawing of a knife suspended
in the air like a guillotine
about to weightlessly drop on the neck
of a murderer and send him
shrieking into oblivion forever,
but it never happens, the knife
keeps falling and falling, but never
falls. That knife could be us.
The milk on the table is always
about to spill, the meat could be
encased in wax paper to be
protected from flies, but it’s
not, it’s unnecessary, the flies
threaten to descend on the
exposed meat, but they can’t, they’re
no longer flies, but a painting of flies,
the blood pooled on the platter
of meat never evaporates, it can’t;
look, it’s still there; and if I
never touch you, well then, we never die.
Listen, even lovers have still lives,
have whole months when they hang
together like moths on an unlit
light bulb, waiting for the bulb to light,
but if it never does then the moths
survive, meat should be allowed
to sit on the table forever
without being devoured by flies
and if that’s not possible, well
then we still have this picture,
the still life not of how it will be,
but of how it was, for the knife and the meat
and the flies, and for us the night we
hesitated together. From now on, love,
we will always be about to destroy
each other, always about to touch.